I've recorded a number of demos in my hair days, from both sides of the board and one thing they're great for is finding weakness in your performance and tracking the progress of the band. Taking demos and trying to turn them into a package for general consumption usually doesn't work for a number of reasons, most often though it's the artist didn't have the studio time to fix any flaws in the tracks. VIXEN's (Hawaii) "Made in Hawaii" makes this abundantly clear.

The first track, "The Young and the Reckless" is a muddle mess of poor sound, poor timing and a young Marty Friedman still trying to become the virtuoso we know and love now. The two versions of "Living in Sin" illustrate very clearly though how quickly one can improve with practice and time as Marty's performance from the first recording to the second attempt has audibly improved. Kim La Chance on the other hand lacks power, range or any depth what so ever and sounds like a high school girl singing in her room  on both versions. "Escape the Night" gives a glimpse of the future shredder learning his craft, but disjointed transitions and poor mix make it hard to really appreciate this awakening of talent.

"Beg For Mercy" (insert bad joke here) Yup, it confused my cats. Another instrumental that might have pushed the band a bit past their abilities. "Angels From the Dust" is another song with two versions with the second being far far superior due to band turn over. Kim's voice though reminds me of the girls from The B-52's and I say this from experience, a full concert with that type of voice gets very annoying very quickly.

I don't know exactly who did what on which song, but there was a definite improvement in the bass and drums in the later recordings (7-12) but it is the development of Marty Friedman that is the only reason to get this reissue, especially if you're a fan of his. To actually hear his fingers get faster in the span of one album is quite interesting. It is a demo though and all the remastering in the world will not improve it in any way good enough to release it for public ears. Oh yea, skip the cover of "House of the Rising Sun", it's so bad my wife left the room. So remember kids DEMOS AREN'T MEANT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE! Unless they're from a band with a huge back catalog, like RUSH, or DEVO.